


Dreams Are Everywhere

by ChirpB



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: ATEEZ Story line entry, Alternate Title: Where is Kim Hongjoong, Alternate Universe - High School, Basketball, Choi Jongho-centric, Concussions, Dreams and Nightmares, Dreams vs. Reality, Friendship, Imagination, Light Angst, Maybe - Freeform, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:07:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25178938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChirpB/pseuds/ChirpB
Summary: "I was too young to know how to reach out to my lost friend. Where am I now, where should I go?"- Jongho's Wanderings (ATEEZ Official Twitter)
Relationships: Choi Jongho & Choi San, Choi Jongho & Everyone, Choi Jongho & Jeong Yunho, Choi Jongho & Jung Wooyoung, Choi Jongho & Kang Yeosang, Choi Jongho & Kim Hongjoong, Choi Jongho & Park Seonghwa, Choi Jongho & Song Mingi
Comments: 1
Kudos: 18





	Dreams Are Everywhere

**Author's Note:**

> I lied
> 
> Here we go
> 
> Enjoy and let me know what you thought of it!!!

He was gone.

He was gone and there was nothing he could do.

Well, it wasn’t like he was powerless. He just didn’t know how to handle what happened because he was young and only knew so much.

And that wasn’t enough.

It wasn’t enough to bring him back.

His friend, who had basically been like his brother, was gone from his life and there was no way he could bring him back.

All of his other friends tried, but to no avail.

There had to be a way.

There had to be a way someone didn’t think of yet.

  
  
  
  


Things change a lot during one’s childhood.

In one moment, you have a million friends that you play with and make up stories with; and in the next moment...you’re in a different town. A town far away from what you once knew.

That’s how it happened for Jongho.

Things never turned out the way he expected.

At one moment, he was playing with his friends and imagining they were together on their own pirate ship, promising each other they would always stay by each other’s sides.

In the next moment, Jongho’s parents told him they were moving to a different city. One he didn’t know anything about, except that it was too far away from his friends.

He didn’t have any control over the situation at that age, and he regretted it for the longest time.

He never got the chance to tell his friends that he was moving, and that was the worst part about it.

So they moved when he was ten.

Jongho cried and his parents tried to comfort him.

That was the best they could do.

  
  
  
  


It had been years since they last moved.

Jongho had gotten over it for the most part.

He attended school, made a couple friends, and continued to live his life the best he could. It didn’t feel the same as it used to, but he didn’t know why.

He joined a couple different sports teams in middle school. One of them being basketball. This was where he met two of his best friends: Yunho and Yeosang.

Yunho was always able to use his height as an advantage during games since he was one of the taller ones at the time, even though they were only in their pre-teen years.

Yeosang was really fast and good at handling the ball, so he was one of the better players.

Jongho, on the other hand, was more strong than anything. He wasn’t the fastest, but he wasn’t slow. He didn’t have the best hand-eye coordination, but he wasn’t terrible.

Whenever the three had a break from school, they would go to some public courts nearby and just shoot around. Jongho thought that was entertaining enough, but it still never beat when he was with his old friends on their pirate ship.

He knew it was a little ridiculous for him to dwell on an imaginary place like that, but he couldn’t help it.

He also knew that if he missed it that much, he could just imagine himself there again; but for some reason it wasn’t the same. It wouldn’t be as fun because his friends were the ones who made it entertaining.

So he didn’t bother.

He did end up telling Yeosang and Yunho about it at one point because they brought up their imaginary friends and what kinds of games they would play when they were younger.

They didn’t make fun of him like he thought they would.

Since Yeosang and Yunho were a year above Jongho, they went to high school before the younger.

Jongho just went throughout his last year of middle school not really hanging out with friends, except for the rare chance he got to see the older two. He still played basketball with his team, but it wasn’t the same that year.

But he shouldn’t expect things to stay the same in his life.

Consistency definitely wasn’t something Jongho would associate with his life in any aspect.

  
  
  
  


After he finally made it through his last year of middle school and into high school, he actually expected things to go back to how it was before. 

Of course that was an unrealistic expectation.

He had asked Yunho and Yeosang to show him around the school; which they happily agreed to, but when he met up with them outside the school’s front doors on the first day, it took all he had in him not to stop in his tracks.

There were two people standing next to his friends that looked vaguely familiar for some reason. 

The group was in some deep conversation and didn’t seem to notice Jongho immediately, which he was grateful for.

He was tempted to just sneak past them into the building and avoid them until he could get Yunho or Yeosang by themselves.

Jongho turned and made his way towards the front doors, praying they wouldn’t look up.

It was just his luck that when he glanced to check and see if any of them spotted him, Yunho was staring right at him with a smile.

“Jongho! Welcome to high school!” The tall boy yelled.

Jongho let out a sigh and made his way towards the group with his head down.

“Wait, Jongho?” A semi-familiar voice asked.

Jongho looked up and met the taller stranger’s gaze.

His eyes widened when the features were suddenly familiar to him.

Granted, his hair wasn’t the same dark brown color it was when they were kids, and he was starting to get some acne, but there was no mistaking who it was.

“Mingi?” He asked.

“You guys know each other?” Yeosang asked.

Mingi nodded and smiled, “It’s been a while. How are you?”

The younger gulped. For some reason he didn’t know, nervousness tore at his insides.

“I’m good. Not much has happened,” Jongho answered, “How about you?”

Jongho would’ve missed it if he wasn’t used to looking at another’s face while they talked, but Mingi’s smile faltered for a split second, then immediately returned with renewed effort.

“I’ve been better, but I’m super happy you’re here. We go to the same school again. Isn’t that crazy?”

“Not entirely crazy, Mingi,” Jongho’s attention was drawn to the other person who was a bit shorter. If it was possible for Jongho’s eyes to widen more, they definitely would’ve. Standing in front of him was Wooyoung; another one of his friends from before he moved.

Wooyoung’s hair was longer than it used to be, but still as black as it was before. 

He was still short to Jongho though.

“I mean,” Wooyoung continued, “We never knew where you disappeared to, but I had a feeling that-”

“How would you have a feeling about us going to the same school?” Mingi interrupted.

Wooyoung huffed, blowing his long bangs out of his eyes. “Not a feeling about that specifically, but like, I had a feeling we’d see him again,” Wooyoung explained.

Mingi made a noise of understanding and turned back to Jongho.

“San and Seonghwa are here too.”

Jongho met Mingi’s gaze and smiled, “Really? That’s awesome!”

“Yeah, they’ll be so excited to see you!”

Yeosang, who had been quiet for the most part, cleared his throat loudly to grab everyone’s attention. “This reunion is lovely and all, but Jongho does still need a tour of the school or he’s gonna be a lost little freshman struggling to find his way,” he pointed out.

“You’re right,” Yunho said, grabbing his backpack that was lying on the ground and hiking it up onto his shoulder, “The building is actually a little confusing. Seonghwa actually helped us on our first day.”

“You knew him for a whole year and didn’t mention him?” Jongho asked, raising his eyebrows.

Yeosang and Yunho gave each other a look and chuckled nervously.

“They’re a little stupid,” Wooyoung said matter-of-factly, earning him a playful punch on the shoulder from Mingi.

“We’re all stupid, Wooyoung.”

“That’s true.”

Jongho chuckled at their antics and motioned for all of them to head inside of the building in front of him.

The four older boys gladly showed Jongho where all of his classrooms were and where the cafeteria was.

Yunho was in the middle of explaining where their little group of friends sat when a boy’s voice shouted loudly and rapid footsteps became louder.

“My friends!!!”

Jongho turned just in time to see Yeosang practically get tackled by a boy with hair as black as Wooyoung’s. His face was full of sharp, fox-like features that Jongho couldn’t help but remember.

“San?” Jongho piped up before he could stop himself.

The boy who he was certain was San turned to Jongho and stared at his face for several excruciating seconds before his face lit up with recognition.

“Jongho! What are you doing here?” San asked excitedly, already wrapping Jongho in a bone-crushing hug.

“San, please stop crushing him,” another voice piped up from behind the two.

Jongho felt San let go of him and took a deep breath, “Sweet air. Beautiful air.”

Everyone chuckled and Jongho turned to see who else was there to save him from San’s surprisingly tight hug.

Standing before him was his oldest friend, Seonghwa. He had his hair dyed an ashy brown color that was styled so you could see his forehead. The older boy also seemed to have grown into a lot of his features.

Jongho wouldn’t lie and say his friend was attractive.

“Oh, Jongho? So I didn’t hear San wrong,” Seonghwa spoke up with a smile.

“Yeah, It’s been a while,” Jongho said, albeit a little awkwardly, “It’s great to see you guys again.”

Seonghwa smirked, “Same here; and same for everyone...obviously.”

Jongho was about to reply when the warning bell for the first class sounded.

“We’ll catch up later, okay?” Wooyoung said, patting Jongho on the shoulder as he walked past.

Jongho nodded and waved goodbye to the group heading away.

Mingi tapped him on the shoulder and motioned for the younger boy to follow him. “My first class is in the same direction as yours,” he explained, giving Jongho a smile.

“Oh sweet!” Jongho said, following the older.

Consistency wasn’t a part of Jongho’s life, but for once, he was glad for it.

  
  
  
  


Jongho wasn’t really able to pay the best attention in his first couple classes. His mind was going wild with all of the ideas he had. He kept thinking about all of the fun things they could do as friends, but he also worried that they might not like the same things anymore.

Well, of course they wouldn’t like the same things anymore. 

They grew up, and the only thing they used to do was play pretend. It would be a bit weird to do that now...wouldn’t it?

Jongho shook the thought out of his head. They’re all older than him, of course they wouldn’t do that.

Well, all of them except for Hongjoong maybe.

Wait.

Hongjoong!

Hongjoong was basically like the little leader of their group. They even made him the captain of their pirate ship when they still did that. They trusted Hongjoong with the imaginary decisions.

Jongho sat up a little straighter after the realization came to him. 

Everyone of his friends was here...except for Hongjoong.

He figured the others would have mentioned the boy if he did go to school with them. Maybe they all still kept in touch.

Then again, Jongho didn’t keep in touch with any of them.

He decided he would ask them about it during lunch later.

Maybe the others would like to play some basketball, Jongho thought. Yunho and Yeosang didn’t play for the school team anymore, but that didn’t mean they would stop playing. Maybe the rest would like to play as well. Mingi seemed to be much taller than before. His height would be good for a defensive player…

Jongho spent the rest of class before lunch in his head thinking about how well his old friends would do playing on a team together.

  
  
  
  
  


He wasn’t really sure how to interact with people anymore, it seemed.

Jongho was so used to just hanging out with Yeosang and Yunho that having more than that really seemed to deter him from making jokes and conversing.

Maybe he was just awkward, but maybe it was also the fact that Jongho didn’t really know his old friends outside of their imagination.

He tried his best to answer all of their questions with simple answers so he wouldn’t have to go into super deep detail about anything, but his plans never seemed to go the way he wanted them to.

Half of the time Yunho would answer for him, which the younger was surprisingly grateful for.

After a while, it seemed like Yunho and Wooyoung were stuck in a conversation on how Jongho would act now and how he used to act.

“He was always so energetic and thought he could do anything when we were little,” Wooyoung explained, causing Jongho to groan with his mouth full of sandwich.

“Oh really?” Yunho asked, “He was pretty energetic with us, but any other time, like in school, he would look like the most aged middle schooler in the world.”

That statement caused everyone to laugh out loud and Jongho to blush a little bit.

That conversation kept going, and Jongho kept trying to find a good spot to voice his question about Hongjoong.

Talking was hard though.

Jongho noticed that Seonghwa didn’t really speak up much, which was very different from how he used to be. 

When they were younger and on their pirate ship, Hongjoong and Seonghwa would almost talk non-stop; whether it would be about what fun things they did that morning, what cartoons they watched, or about the serious matter of the men with the black fedoras that would attempt to attack their ship, Seonghwa was always talking with Hongjoong.

Luckily for Jongho, Seonghwa was sitting right across from him, listening to the other boys’ conversation with a small smile on his face.

Jongho decided he could probably sneak the question to Seonghwa while the others were distracted.

“Seonghwa,” Jongho called out quietly.

Seonghwa, who was chewing on a piece of apple, stopped chewing and looked up at Jongho in question.

“I’m glad you’re all here, but what about Hongjoong?”

The question seemed to hurt Seonghwa for some reason, and Jongho didn’t know why.

There were no more words said between them for several moments and Jongho was afraid he said something really wrong. After a bit, Seonghwa set down his apple and let out a sigh.

“I’ll text you.”

Jongho nodded, “O-okay.”

They had all given each other their numbers earlier. 

He watched as the older boy began tapping away at his phone for who knows how long before the final tap that Jongho assumed was the sending tap.

Surely enough, a few seconds later his phone buzzed in his pocket and he pulled it out to read what Seonghwa wanted to tell him.

“ _ This might sound weird, but after you left, Hongjoong kept coming up with more and more ways for the men with the black fedoras to attack the ship. I know that isn’t super telling of anything, but he just seemed so sad after you left. Maybe part of him and his imagination thought that you would somehow come back and save us if we couldn’t beat them ourselves,”  _ Jongho paused to look up from his phone and give Seonghwa a questioning look. The older boy just nodded and motioned for him to keep reading.

_ “It wasn’t the same after you left. Things slowly started to fall apart. I think a lot of that was from the fact that you moving really shocked us into the real world, if that makes sense. Pretty soon we all stopped playing together like that and moved on. We all missed you, but Hongjoong wouldn’t let go. Sometimes I would walk past his house and see him talking to himself. It hurt to see that. _

_ “We still hung out with each other and invited Hongjoong to come with us, but he would just shrug us off or even say he had better things to do, like watching the ship. I didn’t necessarily think he was crazy, or anything, but that was really concerning to me. We went to one year of middle school together, but he didn’t really talk to me much, even though we hung out during lunch,”  _ Jongho tilted his head in confusion. Hongjoong not talking to Seonghwa in and of itself was concerning, but him dwelling so much on their imagination like that was...it was sure something.

He texted back a quick “ _ But why isn’t he here?” _

Seonghwa took his phone out and texted for about thirty seconds before Jongho’s phone buzzed in his hands.

“ _ I kind of saw it coming from a mile away, but I didn’t do anything. One day he didn’t show up to school, and when I walked past his house, it didn’t look like anyone was there. I just brushed that off, but it was the same the next day, and the day after that. I let it happen. I don’t know if they moved because his parents got a good job, or if Hongjoong was that uncomfortable, but we haven’t seen him for a while. Wooyoung was the only one who had his parents phone number, and when he tried to call...it didn’t go through. _

_ “Whatever was going on, they obviously didn’t want us to know or to talk to Hongjoong anymore. So yeah...that’s why he isn’t here. I’m sorry if you were looking forward to seeing him too, Jongho.” _

Jongho glanced up at Seonghwa and gave him a sad smile, then sent a quick text that said, “ _ It’s alright, I just hope he’s okay. I wasn’t expecting to see any of you ever again. Even though I’m sad he’s not here, at least I have you guys. I also think Hongjoong would’ve loved to meet Yeosang and Yunho.” _

He watched Seonghwa read the text and smiled when Seonghwa nodded in agreement at his last message.

The rest of lunch was spent listening to the others argue about who’s the best at basketball.

Surprisingly, Yeosang was vouching for Jongho instead of himself, and that only made Jongho laugh, because the older was probably one of the best players he had seen in middle school.

Somehow they all ended up coming to an agreement that they would go play some pickup games at the court that Jongho, Yunho, and Yeosang would play at. They decided that they would play tomorrow after school was done so they, according to Wooyoung, “had time to prepare for defeat”.

The rest of the school day passed relatively quickly and Jongho told his mom all about it when he got into the car to drive home.

  
  
  
  


Jongho’s classes the next day couldn’t pass fast enough.

He was too eager to be playing something with all of his friends again.

He was a little out of it when he woke up because he felt like he had the weirdest dream that somehow involved Hongjoong having blue hair and he remembered seeing a figure in black during his dream as well.

Jongho just brushed it off as his subconscious remembering the conversation he had with Seonghwa earlier. He didn’t know how Hongjoong’s hair turned blue though.

It was just another thing he had to brush off.

Classes and lunch passed by quickly for him, and he was almost too eager to get to the courts. So eager that he almost left the others behind and just sprinted there himself.

Mingi pinched his cheek after seeing how flustered the younger got when he realized what he almost did, earning him a smack on the arm.

The group of friends made it to the courts and Jongho practically threw his basketball shoes on.

They all stretched a bit before deciding how they would do teams. Because of the odd number they had, Seonghwa opted to sit out and be the referee for them.

It was Jongho, Yunho, and Yeosang against Wooyoung, San, and Mingi.

Jongho didn’t know how well the others could play, considering they never really showed interest in sports before, but he didn’t want to underestimate them.

He chuckled to himself, though, when he realized that his team probably had the most experience with this kind of thing and had the best teamwork because of the years they played together in middle school.

Once the game started, it was fairly obvious who was going to win.

Jongho’s team easily scored points on the others, even though Mingi was able to use his height to his advantage and block a couple.

Once they reached the agreed upon score, Wooyoung dropped to the ground and groaned in annoyance.

“Fine. You guys are really good.”

San just laughed at him and moved to lay on top of the younger.

Jongho laughed at their antics and moved to take off his basketball shoes on the bench.

_ Hongjoong would’ve loved this,  _ he thought to himself. Jongho wasn’t sure why he kept thinking about his old friend. He thought it would be easy to just move on from him and hope he was living a good life, but he just couldn’t.

Maybe that’s how Hongjoong felt when Jongho moved.

Jongho sighed and looked outside of the fenced-off court to the trees that were in the park where the court was.

His breath caught in his throat when he spotted a figure seeming to hide behind a tree. They were dressed in all black and had a black hat on their head. Jongho squinted to see if he could get a better look, but when he blinked and looked back, the figure was gone.

He wasn’t sure how long he sat there in a confused state, but it must have been long enough because Yeosang had to move in front of Jongho to get his attention.

The group kept asking if Jongho was alright, which Jongho kept explicitly assuring them he was fine, just tired.

That’s what he told himself.

He was just tired.

  
  
  
  


Jongho tried his best to go through the next couple months of school without incident, and he mostly succeeded.

There was one time where he fell asleep during his math class, but he was let off with nothing more than a warning.

It wasn’t his fault he was so tired. Well, maybe it was. He didn’t really know how dreams were supposed to work.

Ever since he saw the figure at the park, his mind kept adding on details to the dark figure in his dreams. He didn’t know why, but the figure ended up with blue hair poking out of the bottom of it’s black fedora.

That was another thing that surprised Jongho.

The figure began to look almost identical to how Hongjoong had described the men with the black fedoras when they were younger.

And no matter the dream, the man with the black fedora and blue hair was always lingering somewhere in his dreams.

The dreams weren’t the only thing keeping him from getting a full night’s sleep.

Every time he had one of those dreams, he would wake up in the middle of the night with the need to find Hongjoong somehow.

He tried everything his teenage brain could think of, and it wasn’t a lot.

Pretty soon he tried to drag the others into it at one point, but they told him to just leave it alone and give up searching for their lost friend.

But Jongho kept trying anything he could think of.

He tried looking up Hongjoong on social media, but there was no trace of anything that could possibly be him.

He was frustrated, but he didn’t give up.

He knew that it was slowly eating away at him, but until he could find his old friend, he wouldn’t give up.

There was one week when he took a break from it all, so did his dreams and the man with the black fedora, so he could go to basketball tryouts. 

He made the team.

Then the dreams started again.

It wasn’t just in his dreams anymore.

Jongho would see the figure out of the corner of his eye, but he was never there for longer than a second.

He would be in Jongho’s room in the shadows.

Maybe Jongho was just going crazy, but he’d never had something like that happen to him. So he just boiled it down to being the stress of high school getting to him.

Basketball practice was the only escape he had from the shadow.

Maybe it was because he moved around too much to notice the figure, or maybe his brain decided to give him a break during practices, but either way, basketball was his safe space. 

His friends didn’t seem to think anything was really wrong with Jongho, they just noticed he was getting more and more tired each day.

Wooyoung had pointed out that Jongho had bags under his eyes, but Yeosang had slapped the other’s shoulder to tell him to knock it off.

They all still hung out when they could, but school was starting to get to them.

Once Jongho’s basketball games started, the others made it a priority to go to as many of his games as they could.

It wasn’t like Jongho was a varsity player, so his games weren’t at the normal times that the school’s main games were.

They won their first game and he wasn’t aware that Yeosang could cheer so loudly.

Jongho couldn’t find Hongjoong at all.

The next game was close, but they had only lost by one three-pointer. His friends still cheered him on and said he did the best he could.

Still no sign of Hongjoong anywhere he looked.

At the third game, Jongho had a feeling something was off.

His friends were there, but everytime he glanced over at them, there would be some sort of shadow that would disappear.

It confused him a lot when Jongho saw the figure next to his friends while the team warmed up; so much that he missed a practice layup.

He never missed layups.

Jongho did his best to brush off the sensation of the man with the black fedora’s eyes on him.

Once the game started and the cheers of his friends began, Jongho was able to block out the feeling and focused on the game as much as he usually would, and the game was going pretty well.

The game went well until the third quarter when the other team had the ball and was bringing it down the court to Jongho’s team’s side.

He moved to go block the man he was supposed to be defending against.

The ball got passed.

Jongho’s man moved under the hoop.

Jongho tried to get the ball before his man grabbed it and made the shot.

He wasn’t able to and the other player jumped to shoot.

Jongho did too.

The basket was made and Jongho landed just as his opponent's arms came down hard on his head.

He winced and stumbled backwards, squeezing his eyes shut.

When he opened them a split second later, the man with the black fedora and blue hair was standing right in front of him, causing Jongho to stumble backwards even more.

He had never been close enough to see the man’s eyes.

They looked familiar, but also held a cold anger that Jongho had never seen in his life.

He slipped.

He slipped and fell backwards.

Jongho wasn’t prepared enough to catch himself, so his head slammed into the gym floor, causing pain to explode through his head and his vision went dark.

  
  
  
  


Jongho vaguely remembered the panic that ensued after he got knocked out.

The school’s athletic trainer had him move to the room where they worked on students injuries.

He wasn’t able to walk super straight.

The trainer told him he had a concussion, but that didn’t really register to him.

He was just tired.

So, so tired.

They didn’t let him go back to bed, which Jongho was a little mad about.

He just wanted to sleep.

Seonghwa came into the room at one point, but Jongho didn’t really understand why.

That was probably his concussed brain thinking.

Eventually his dad showed up and took him to the hospital so they could check if he had any internal bleeding. Jongho didn’t really care about that. He just wanted to sleep.

They let him go home, which Jongho was thankful for, and his mom made him go to sleep immediately, and Jongho didn’t argue.

  
  
  
  


The dream was different this time.

Jongho couldn’t really tell why, but it was suddenly made obvious to him when he stepped outside of the little cabin he was in.

There was a hallway with several wooden doors that he guessed held more cabins behind them.

He made his way down the hallway towards what looked like the outside. His feet tapped lightly on the wooden flooring.

Once he made it to the end, he had to squint at the sudden brightness the outside held.

When his eyesight adjusted, he was left shocked and breathless at the sight before him.

The sky was a brilliant array of colors ranging from a vibrant orange to a deep blue. Those two colors combined made the clouds around him a pinkish color with the sun shining brightly through them.

Jongho couldn’t help but smile at the sight. It was truly breathtaking.

He took a couple more steps before he saw what he was on and stopped in his tracks.

It looked like a deck, like on a pirate ship.

He whipped his head around, trying to find something, but he didn’t know what. Maybe his subconscious was making him look for something.

Jongho stepped out more and made his way down some stairs to get to the main deck.

There were little things lying around and crates and ropes strewn about.

His feet kept moving while he looked around, but he couldn’t control where they would take him.

He passed the first mast, then the second, and finally the third one closest to the front when he finally noticed a figure dressed in black standing at the bow of the ship.

Jongho took hesitant steps towards who he assumed was the man with the black fedora. Except there was no fedora, and all that Jongho could see was the brilliant blue hair the man had.

The man was facing away from Jongho, seemingly looking out at the view in front of them as they flew through the clouds.

Jongho didn’t know how he should approach the situation. Should he try and get the man’s attention? Should he leave and hope not to antagonize him?

It was sudden, but the man decided to whip around to see who was behind him.

Jongho jumped at the sudden movement and also fell down.

“Jongho,” the man said, making Jongho’s eyebrows raise in question.

The man wasn’t wearing his mask either, so Jongho could clearly see his face.

It was Hongjoong.

Well, an older Hongjoong. One who had grown up since they last saw each other.

“Hongjoong…,” Jongho trailed off, not really knowing what he was supposed to say to his lost friend.

“I’m sorry I got you concussed.”

“Huh?” Jongho responded dumbly. That definitely wasn’t the first thing he thought Hongjoong would say.

Hongjoong chuckled, “Looks like it’s getting to you, even in your dreams.”

The older boy let out a sigh and smiled, turning back towards the front of the ship. Jongho noticed Hongjoong motion for the younger to come closer, which Jongho did hesitantly. 

It wasn’t as windy as it should’ve been on the ship, but there was still enough of a breeze to go through Jongho’s hair.

When he stopped next to Hongjoong, he looked over and noticed the older boy had his eyes closed and his hair was being swept back.

“The air is nice up here,” Hongjoong said, startling Jongho out of his thoughts, “Why don’t you try and enjoy it a bit?”

Jongho obliged and closed his eyes for a moment, facing the wind and enjoying the breeze running through his hair.

He took in a deep breath and let out a sigh.

It felt so real.

It was silent for several moments while the two just enjoyed the breeze.

“Please stop, Jongho.”

Jongho opened his eyes, turning to look at Hongjoong.

The other had his head hanging low with a solemn expression on his face.

“Stop what?” Jongho asked.

Hongjoong turned to him, standing tall.

“Please stop looking for me,” Hongjoong said, voice almost pleading, “You don’t need to waste your time trying to look for me.”

“What? Why not?”

“I don’t need you to. I’m actually doing really well now, so you don’t need to worry about me,” Hongjoong explained with a small smile.

Jongho shook his head, “No, you’re just my subconscious telling me that.”

Hongjoong chuckled, “You think your subconscious is telling you that you need a break from me?”

“What? No! That’s not-”

“I’m just messing around, Jongho,” Hongjoong laughed, “I do want you to know that I am very real. Whether you believe that or not is entirely up to you. How do you think the breeze feels so real?”

“The breeze has nothing to do with it,” Jongho pointed out.

Hongjoong shrugged, “Well, it should indicate something. I’m just letting you know, this is really me, really telling you that you don’t need to look for me,” Hongjoong turned to look at the view, “I mean, you won’t be able to find me anywhere in the world you live in.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing important you need to know about yet. If you’re patient, I’ll be able to tell you, but first you need to let me go.”

Jongho looked down at the wood under his feet. He couldn’t really make any sense of what he was hearing from Hongjoong. 

He heard Hongjoong let out an exasperated sigh.

“You’re still young.”

_ So are you,  _ Jongho wanted to reply.

“A lot of this won’t make much sense to you, but it will eventually,” Hongjoong continued, finally looking back up at Jongho, “I’m doing important things. Important things to me, and I don’t need you to worry about me. I’m perfectly fine, and you shouldn’t let your worry about me get in the way of you growing up and living your life.

“Seonghwa knows what’s up. The others...they kind of know. I tried telling them, but they had a hard time believing me. Almost like you right now,” Hongjoong pointed out, “I personally don’t mind them not really paying attention, but I really want them to know, and you to know that I’m okay. There really is no need to worry about me.”

Jongho’s brows furrowed as he thought about what Hongjoong had just told him.

“Seonghwa knows?”

“Yeah, he was the first one I visited.”

“Then why didn’t he tell me that when I asked him,” Jongho asked.

Hongjoong rolled his eyes, “Well, probably because he would sound crazy, or something.”

“Makes sense,” Jongho agreed.

The younger definitely didn’t expect it, but Hongjoong suddenly stepped forward and wrapped him in a tight hug.

It took him a second to snap out of his surprised state and gently hug back.

“I miss you guys so much,” Jongho heard Hongjoong whisper, “But I’m glad I can still talk to you somehow.”

Jongho felt like he wanted to cry after hearing how heartbroken his older friend sounded.

“I miss you, too,” he said to the older, awkwardly patting his back.

“I know you do,” Jongho felt Hongjoong’s shoulders shake with laughter, “Why else would you devout your nights looking for me?”

Jongho pouted, “That’s...that’s a fair point.”

The two boys sat there hugging each other for what felt like a long time. It was weird for Jongho because he didn’t usually like hugs at all, but it was different with Hongjoong there.

“I’m sorry for distracting you during your game and getting you concussed,” Hongjoong said quietly.

“You-,” Jongho spluttered, attempting to hold back his laughter.

“Hey! I’m serious! I got you hurt,” Hongjoong pouted.

Jongho stepped back from Hongjoong and just laughed.

“It’s not funny,” Hongjoong complained.

“It’s a little funny.”

“That concussion really ruined your brain, didn’t it?”

“Maybe,” Jongho said, “But I don’t think it was your fault. If it makes you feel any better, you’re forgiven.”

Hongjoong rolled his eyes again. Jongho wondered how much the older actually did that in real life.

Was this real life?

Jongho honestly didn’t know anymore.

Hongjoong sighed after seeing Jongho’s confused face.

“Your parents are going to wake you up soon to make sure you aren’t dead, or something. I’ll leave you for now. I do have to visit Seonghwa before he wakes up.”

Jongho’s eyebrows shot up, “You visit him?!”

The older boy nodded, putting on a black fedora that materialized out of nowhere, “If I didn’t, I would feel bad. He always tells me to come back and let him know that I’m doing alright.”

“I feel like I got thrown into something a lot bigger than myself by trying to find you,” Jongho explained.

“Oh, most definitely.”

Jongho let out an exasperated chuckle and watched as Hongjoong put a black mask over his face.

“I’m glad you looked for me. It made me feel loved, but please don’t push yourself by looking for me. If you want me to, I can visit you like I do with Seonghwa, and I can explain more of what’s going on. How does that sound?” Hongjoong asked.

“That sounds…” Jongho trailed off, thinking for a second, “That sounds awesome. I’d love to hear more from you.”

He couldn’t see through the mask, but judging by the crinkle of Hongjoong’s eyes, Jongho guessed the older was smiling at him.

The older boy slowly raised his arm and extended a fist out to Jongho.

Jongho just looked at it for a second before Hongjoong tilted his head.

“I gotta go, Jongho.”

“Ah, right. Sorry,” Jongho apologized.

He reached his hand out and gave Hongjoong a fist bump.

Once he did, he instantly felt lighter. He looked down at himself and saw that he was becoming more and more see through.

In a panic, he looked up to Hongjoong just to see him giving him a mock-salute as a goodbye.

His surroundings dimmed.

The ship was gone from under him and the sky was turning black.

He closed his eyes and hoped he wasn’t about to die.

The last thing he heard before his mom woke him up was Hongjoong’s voice telling him, “I’ll talk to you later, don’t worry.”

  
  
  
  


His sleep schedule went back to how it was before after that night. 

He gave up trying to search for Hongjoong outside of his dreams.

Jongho didn’t see the man with the black fedora, aka Hongjoong, much after the dream either. He suspected it was because Hongjoong didn’t want to accidentally cause another concussion or anything.

It was a couple weeks before Jongho could go back to playing basketball normally.

But it was only a couple days before he could go back to school.

His friends constantly kept an eye on him to make sure he, in Mingi’s words, “Didn’t pass out randomly”.

Seonghwa acted as normally as he had before Jongho knew about Hongjoong. So normally that Jongho was tempted to believe that was really just one of his dreams.

It wasn’t until a few days later that Seonghwa came to school with a surprised look on his face.

Everyone else was making their way to class, and Jongho told Mingi to go ahead so he could talk to Seonghwa.

“So…,” Seonghwa trailed off.

“So?”

“Should we ask if he can get us both in the same dream or something?”

Jongho almost choked on his spit when he heard Seonghwa suggest that.

“So I’m not crazy!”

Seonghwa chuckled, “Of course you’re not crazy. I’m just glad I’m not crazy either, but I already knew that.”

Jongho shot the other an incredulous look.

“I’m joking, don’t worry,” Seonghwa reassured, “Really though, I want to know if we could do that. Hanging out on the ship, almost like we used to when we were little, but for reals.”

“That would be pretty cool,” Jongho agreed.

When Jongho went to bed that night, he heard Hongjoong’s voice ring through his head.

_ “I’m no longer a lost friend, Jongho. You can live your life how you want without worrying about me.” _

And Jongho knew he was right.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys are able to read all of the awesome stories that have been posted for the story line event.
> 
> I'm excited to read them all!!!
> 
> Also, I'm thinking I could do a sequel to this.
> 
> If you guys are wanting that, maybe I can do another one to continue it!
> 
> Let me know what you thinK!
> 
> My Twt: [@Chirp_B](https://twitter.com/Chirp_B)


End file.
